June world's hottest month, breaks records

Last month was the hottest June not only in Europe but worldwide since records began, according to a leading climate change institute.

"Data released today show that the European-average temperature for June 2019 was higher than for any other June on record," the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday in Brussels.

The average temperatures in Europe were on average 2 degrees Celsius above the defined normal range for the month, C3S said.

Jean-Noel Thepaut, head of C3S, said: "Although local temperatures may have been lower or higher than those forecast, our data show that the temperatures over the southwestern region of Europe during the last week of June were unusually high.

"Although this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change."

Copernicus is the earth observation program of the European Union, which relies to a large extent on satellite data.